Bikes on Dundas

London Cycle Link has been campaigning for safe and convenient cycling infrastructure on Dundas Street between Old East and Downtown for almost 3 years because it's one of the best opportunities to encourage more people to ride. The City of London is currently studying this cycling connection in conjunction with creating specific land use policies for Old East, and presented theirpreferred solution at a public meeting on November 1.  See this map for part of the plan. 

Let's start with the good news: the City is proposing cycle tracks (protected bike lanes) for the entire corridor and removing a lane of on-street parking in OEV to widen sidewalks and allow for patios and landscaping. This would make the village a very nice place to be, except the current plan doesn't allow for convenient cycling in both directions. Most of the bike lanes occur on Dundas Street which is our preferred solution - put the bike lanes where people want to go - but in the narrow area of OEV they have split eastbound cyclists on Dundas and westbound cyclists on Queens. 

The bad news: placing one direction on Dundas and the other on Queens is not intuitive nor direct and it wouldn't stop people on bikes from continuing to ride westbound on Dundas - without any safe infrastructure. We have proposed a compromise that allows for increased sidewalk width and landscaping, but doesn't come at the expense of safe and convenient cycling. See here.

Next steps: We've met with the City and asked them to review our proposal and see if it's feasible. We'll continue to advocate for convenient bike lanes in both directions on Dundas and attempt to make this plan the best it can be for people on bikes, business owners, and patrons.  We welcome your feedback and support.